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Why Have Computers Not Been Advancing as Rapidly, Recently?

I recall that, during the 1990’s and the first decade of the 2000’s, computers advanced by great amounts very frequently, most notably in the realms of processor operating frequency and drive storage capacities, clear evidence of Moore’s Law in effect. Now, however, in the second decade of the 2000’s, advancements in electronics have been slower, with major breakthroughs occurring less frequently.

For example, after hard drives finally reached 1 gigabyte in size (wow, I can actually remember when 1 gigabyte was high capacity), which took several decades to occur, it took only several more years before drive capacities began to reach the terabyte level, but drives are currently nowhere close to reaching petabyte capacities yet. Similarly, after processors reached 1 gigahertz frequencies, it did not take long for them to reach 2 and 3 gigahertz, but frequencies have not increased very much beyond that. Some processors have frequencies of 4 gigahertz, but almost none have frequencies of 5 gigahertz, let alone double-digit frequencies.

Why is that? Are there limits to how much computer components can advance? What does everyone else say about this? Why have computers not been advancing as greatly, recently?

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